Sunday, June 26, 2011

In light of today's overcast and dull weather, I decided I wanted some bright and fun nails. Here's China Glaze Entourage, a nice, bright green, perfect to brighten even the darkest day! Stamped with Konad black special polish, and some even brighter dotting pens.

Here's mani in progress; two coats of China Glaze Entourage.

Stamped using fauxnad SdP D-10 with black Konad special polish.

After the dotting, used a little glitter as I just can't seem to stop using it! Maybe this was a little over the top and in retrospect, I think I like it slightly better without the glitter. If you click on the pix, you can see the glitter a little better!

This mani took forever...because I was playing on my kids Wii game in between coats while they dried....my game of choice was the 25th Anniversary edition which is the old Super Mario's...probably pretty boring for most but I still have these on N64 and like playing Mario occasionally!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Saturday morning, I had a few minutes to put together everything for my recent 300+ follower giveaway. Before I announce the winners, a huge "thank you" again for everyone who has ever checked out my little blog! A little over a year ago, I started this blog to just keep track of the stamping I've done. I was pleasantly surprised when I got my very first follower, Susie1955, and it has grown by follower by follower. I never would have thought over 500 people would be interested to see whats on my nails....so thank you so much!!!

Now onto the results! In total, there were 304 entries. The first name drawn was Zsofc who will receive OPI Serena Glam Slam in Spark de Triomphe and White Shatter, with the four OPI polishes What's Dune?, Merry Midnight, Coral Reef and Glacier Bay Blues.*

The second name drawn drawn was Elizabeth at Life & Polish, who will receive the second shatter set, OPI Serena Glam Slam in Rally Pretty Pink and Red Shatter and the same four OPI polishes.

And lastly, ct1980 over at I Colour Outside the Line (who I'm guessing is a fellow Canuck by the way 'colour' is spelled!! What's the chances of THAT!!), who will receive prize 3 being the four OPI polishes.

Congrats everyone!!! Emails have already been sent out and they have 48 hours to reply or another name will be drawn for the appropriate prize.

I'm really bummed that Canada Post is on strike (as far as I know, unless its resolved now) so unfortunately, there will be a delay in getting these out to as there's no mail service in Canada right now, so I'm sorry about this but its beyond my control! But they will be mailed out as soon as I can!

I recently was at the mall and peeked into Forever 21 to see whats new and picked up a few polishes. This Love & Beauty polish was marked Light Gray and as I was really liking the gold shimmer, thought I'd use it for my next mani.

Whoa...nail fail! I was not liking this at all..frosty...streaky...blah!! All I could think of was, this is why Konad was developed! To cover up polish fails! LOL! I wanted to use a stamp that covered up A LOT of the polish....decided upon fauxnad A44 using Konad black special polish. For some reason, I was strangely fascinated by how it looked before cleanup so decided to take a pix....

And after cleanup...urggh...while I really like the results of using black special polish, the cleanup is terrible and this was the best I could get despite taking (that I felt was a) long time to clean up.

And then, decided to add a couple swatches of multicolour glitter. This pix isn't the best, but the end result was pretty cool...a good way to cover up the polish nail fail if nothing else. I really wasn't feeling this many at all, so this mani only stayed on for around 24 hours. That's the great thing about nail fail...just an excuse to change your mani the next day!

Here's my highly sophisticated method of choosing the winners....

Congrats to everyone and thanks for looking!

Update: August 30, 2011: The last giveaway winner just emailed saying that she has received the package; all three packages confirmed delivered!

*OOPS! I noted wrong polish in the post but it is Glacier Bay Blues as outlined in the giveaway details!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time picking out what polish to wear most days. Hard to believe when I have so many polishes but still feel that I can't find something to put on. And as I seem to favour pinks and purples, I try to mix it up or otherwise, I'd be wearing them every day!

Anyway, my last mani, I picked out Essie Bungle Jungle for no other reason that it seemed to go with the dress I had planned on wearing to work the following day. Then stamped using fauxnad XL F using white Konad special polish.

Lately, I can't see to leave my mani's alone without adding some glitter, so I added some dots and glitter. Here's with just the dots.

Essie Bungle Jungle by itself; two coats.

I hope to have a chance to finish getting everything together to announce the winners of the giveaway, which should be included in my next post! Thx for your patience...and for looking!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

This is the mani that I did Friday night, which I wore until I took if off to do the Father's Day mani. Two coats of Essie Da Bush. Then stamped using Konad black special polish using fauxnad's D11 and SdP D-05.

Here's Essie Da Bush by itself...lighting isn't the best as I was away for the weekend and don't have access to the somewhat better lighting like I have at home.... but hopefully you get the idea of the colour....

This colour is a little tame for me as I'm more into the bright colours but I did like the way it turned out. For me, the stamping made the mani a little more interesting...otherwise, its a little on the drab side for me. I'm not sure if you can tell from the stamping, but the stamping on my fingers only has about half the image used but the thumb nail has a little bit more of the bamboo leaves, just so you get an idea of how large the image is on this D plate.

Thx to everyone who entered my giveaway which is now closed! I'm working on getting everything together to announce the winners. I also want to welcome those of you who have started following me after the giveaway ended. Thanks so much for checking out my little blog! I have another giveaway in mind ..... I always planned on having a 500 follower giveaway (which is surpassed..so thank you everyone!) or a one year bloggiversary (which also passed a week or so ago and I never noticed....d'uh!) so I'll be announcing something soon...but gotta conclude this giveaway first so I'll do it soon....now, if only Canada Post will start delivering mail again.....!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

I'm heading to breakfast with my dad soon (and my husband and kids cause he's a father too!) and thought I would quickly share my Father's Day mani.

Polishes used were Essence My Boyfriend's Jeans for thumb, OPI No Room for the Blues for index and ring fingers and Essence Forever Mine for other fingers; two coats each.

Then stamped with Konad black and white special polishes using IP's SdP D-14, SdP C-17 and A19. Afterwards, used a bit a few dotting pens for a little colour interest.

Here's mani in progress. Before stamping; polishes by themselves.

Stamping in progress.

Lastly, once finishes, with SV.

I hope you have a terrific day. I've been spending all weekend with my dad and the whole family's excited to be heading out for breakfast soon (will probably be brunch by the time we leave!

Have a great day and thanks for looking!

And lastly, a final call to enter my giveaway which ends today! If you are interested in checking it out, please go here! I'll be compiling the winners soon and will post in a few days! Thx for checking it out!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

My 300+ follower giveaway ends soon (June 19th) and in my initial post announcing the giveaway, I mentioned I would try to feature the polishes, and really haven't done that except I did another using OPI What's Dune? So today's mani includes OPI Coral Reef.

The base coat is CND Tropical Coral...it matches the pedi I had yesterday. Started with two coats.

Then added one coat of OPI Coral Reef. Both Coral Reef and What's Dune? are part of the OPI It's Summer for Shore collex. Over time, I've been able to pick up them all except Blue Moon Lagoon. Coral Reef is pretty sheer and even one coat, you see the holo in the polish. I'm sure if I had have put on a second coat, the holo would be more pronounced, but I knew I was going to stamp over it, so left it at one.

Then stamped using Konad black special polish, using fauxnad IP A51. This is before adding a coat of SV.

And after a quick coat of SV....the black stamping is more pronounced with stamping...too bad the black Konad is so hard to remove! Sorry, but the pix do show a bit not removed in cleanup! And unfortunately, I nicked my nail when I was picking up my camera and the SV was still wet so my index finger is a little smudged. *sigh* Just another reason to do my nails tonight!

Lastly, a rare pix of my right hand...I was using it as a tester to try to figure out what stamp I wanted to use so I could get a gauge for how much of the polish would show through using whatever stamp...only showing as it has a couple fingers with another image from the A51 plate, which I thought was cool...can easily see me doing a mani with it in the near future!

The giveaway ends on June 19th...if you haven't entered already and are interested in doing so, please go here!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

My last post had referenced Icing by Claire's Epic Winning (and Tiger's Blood) and there were a couple of commenters who weren't that familiar with it, so I decided to use it as part of my current mani.

I used two coats of OPI DS Fantasy to start. Then did one coat of Icing Epic Winning on thumb nail for accent. Lastly, stamped using fauxand IP SdP D-07 with my go-to silver stamping polish, Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.

A few pix of mani in progress just to show you what it looked like.

OPI DS Fantasy by itself in a couple different lighting options.

This is two coats (and terrible clean up!)

Added one coat of Icing Epic Winning on thumb nails. Here's bottle pix of Icing Epic Winning. As far as I know, its only available at Icing by Claire's stores...you can't get the polish at Claire's. It was $5 with buy one, get second at half price, which is a pretty good deal. For anyone who has severe chemical reactions, this polish does have a pretty strong odour, which may turn off a few people.

I got the feeling that *maybe* the pix wouldn't translate the sparkle in Epic Winning so much, so I took a short video if you want to check it out! Please try not to get sea-sick while you watch it! LOL!!!

I've love to hear your thoughts on Epic Winning...is it *winning* to you? Or an Epic fail? And if have it, please share your mani! I'd love to see how you wore it...please leave a link of your pix in the comments so I can check it out!

And lastly, just a reminder that this is the last week to enter my 300ish follower giveway, which ends on June 19th. If you are interested in checking it out, go here!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Have you heard about those 'Charlie Sheen' polishes at Icing by Claire's....Epic Winning and Tiger's Blood? After I had seen a few swatches, I went to the Icing store closest to me...actually had to visit a couple stores before I found Tiger's Blood, but was able to get them. While I was at Icing, I picked up this polish, Orchid and decided it was going to be my next mani.

After two coats, stamped using fauxand IP A59 using Konad black special polish. I wish my nails were all a little longer like the thumb nails so the full nail design with the swirls on both ends is visible as I really like the look of it.

Added a little bit of sparkle with some nail art stripers after stamping.

Unfortunately, the lighting when I took these pix wasn't the greatest but hope you can see a little of the sparkle.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

I picked up Zoya Maya a couple weeks ago at Trade Secrets. The one in my area has limited selection with a million pale pinks, so it was nice to visit a location with a little selection. IRL, this is a pinkish coral colour, but it photo'd more on the orange-ish/coral side. Nice and summery nonetheless, so it was my last mani.

After two coats, stamped fauxnad IP SdP D-09 using Konad black special polish. Then used dotting polish pen thingy to add a couple of dots. Here's what it looked like.

Here's mani in progress; Zoya Maya two coats.

Stamping in progress; this is before topcoat.

Here's the pen I used. I have a bunch of these and love them!

I hope you are having a great weekend! Please take a chance to check out my giveaway here...it ends June 19th!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

A while back, I went on a little image plate buying splurge; I may or may not have ordered over 100 new stamping plates! (If by chance my husband ever comes across this, I only ordered 10; 100 is a typo, ahem!) Anyway, they all arrived last week and I've been sampling a few of them in recent mani's. I already showed some of the SdP plates; I thought I'd use one from A41-60 that I just received from Magno Nails.**

Base coat is two coats of Nubar Baby Blue. Used China Glaze DV8 using fauxnad IP A46. After I stamped, added a few random rhinestones for a little more interest. Here's pix before they were added and before I added a couple more stamps because I couldn't decide at what point I wanted to finish adding them!

Using DV8 as stamp was wrong polish to use for this image plate in hindsight.When I was doing my mani, I wanted to use a holographic polish as we've had a lot of sun lately and I think holo is just so cool. But I usually don't like to stamp a lot of holo's as base coats as I think the holo is so cool and I like it to be focal point....and really wanted to use a new plate. So next best thing in my mind was to stamp using a holo. Unfortunately, the end result was you just see the colour, no holo. Even in full sunlight, hardly any sparkle shows thru as the image details are so small.

I do most of my mani's very late at night and usually take pix right away. The above pix was taken the next morning in full sunlight...hardly any holo is to be seen....its not even visible IRL. Its not like it got lost in the camera pix which sometimes happens that a mani is so much cooler in real life than it translates (hopefully this makes sense...I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about!!) Oh well.

And just before I took it off, I added a little random sparkle...not sure if I like it or not, but here's what it looked like.

I'd also like to say a great big "hello" to you if you're just starting to follow my little blog! Thx for checking it out!

Thx for looking!

**Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow bloggers where they may be obtained should they be interested!

Monday, June 6, 2011

As I mentioned earlier in the comments of my last post, my current mani is using Shirley's plates. Base is CND Plumville. Then stamped with SdP C-10 using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.

I spent Sunday afternoon in the mall with my daughter so she could get clothes for camp...why she needed new clothes to go to camp is beyond me, as most people would take old clothes so as to not get them wrecked, but apparently, new clothes were needed so at the mall we were. At least it gave me an opportunity to check to see if there was any new or interesting polishes! I got a lot of compliments on this mani when we were out shopping...even the ladies at the bank thought it was cool!

This is CND Plumville by itself. Great colour; almost a one coater. Could probably be a one-coater if I was more careful with my application. Next time, I'll have to try to remember to use one of the CND Effects just to see what it looks like! This is two coats.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

A while back, I had ordered Shirley's plates, A and B series. There were a few of the images that didn't stamp well and after a lot of swatching, I discovered that Essence Stampy polish or Wet n Wild black work best as they aren't as thick as Konad special polish. All in all, I believe there were around 11 images that I couldn't get to stamp. I was still pretty happy that most of them worked as there are a lot of really cool and unique designs.

I had read she got a new manufacturer for her plates so placed an order recently for the newly released C and D plates, that arrived today. I spent a bit of time swatching some of them with Konad special polish. I can say that of the ones that I swatched tonight, there was only one that was iffy (spiderweb; it did transfer but you have to be super quick to stamp or nothing transfers as the etching is very faint. These pix that you see are some of the swatching pix I did...feel free to click on them to enlarge them to see them a little better! Please note that these are quick and dirty swatches as I didn't plan on posting them... when I was doing them, it didn't matter to me if I got polish on whole plate or removed excess polish so some are not the best. I'd take more care if I was stamping on my fingers! And the plastic is easy to peel off... if you ordered A or B plates, you'll know what I'm talking about!!

Pretty cool, eh? I know a few of you are anxious to see how these C and D plates stamp, so I quickly swatched a few images over my current mani, Nicole by OPI Coral Denominator, which is part of the newly released Justin Bieber polishes. These are suppose to be Canadian exclusive...and they are pretty reclusive in my area as I've only found one store that carries them. Unfortunately, this isn't the best polish to show the designs but by default, just what I happen to have on at the time.

Here's Coral Denominator by itself. In certain lights, it looks pink and others, more on the coppery/coral/apricot side. This is two coats and still could see visible nail line. Next time, I'll do three coats or put a neutral colour as base coat.

I'll probably use a few more of these plates for my next few manis as I know there is some interest from fellow stamping addicts to see how they work! But so far, no complaints from me! I swatched several images from each image plate and only the spiderweb was iffy! Shirley's e-tailer site is here.***

***Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow bloggers where they may be obtained should they be interested!

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About Me

I discovered Konad a few years ago and it has captivated me ever since! I have a large polish and plate stash that keeps on growing! The biggest challenge I have lately is...what polish with what plate!
If you're interested in a polish swap, or want to contact me, I can be reached at: mrsrexy at gmail dot com.